


The Vastness of the Universe

by alexcat



Series: 100 fandoms [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Friendship, M/M, Protective Natasha Romanov, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 14:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17920448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Natasha makes a threat, or is it a promise?





	The Vastness of the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> 100 Fandoms Prompt #1 - Universe

Natasha warily watched Tony Stark blithely flirt with Steve. Like everything else he did, he acted like it was a matter of no consequence at all. 

She had befriended Steve the day they met on the helicarrier. They had little in common and yet, everything in common. She was the darkness to his light, but they both knew loneliness and isolation, both knew what it was like to be cut off from everything and everyone they'd ever known. 

They became lovers after the battle of New York. He’d been so tired and so lonely when everyone else had wandered back to their mates and friends. She could never say it out loud, but she’d needed his warmth and his sweetness. There was always passion, but their friendship was stronger than the passion. They came together when they needed one another, as friends or as lovers. 

She wasn’t jealous of Stark. 

Stark was not going to hurt him on her watch. 

She knew that Steve was already head over heels in love with Stark and she knew it could not end well. They were a clash of the past and the future… and not a gentle one. Steve had a rather rigid sense of right and wrong and Tony loved to pick at other people’s convictions. He never understood that to attack everything a person believed was not going to change someone’s mind. All it did was make an enemy of someone who might have been a friend, instead. 

She was not going to let him do this to her best friend. 

Steve deserved better. 

She said nothing when they left the common room together while the others watched _Ghostbusters_. She slipped out and followed at a discreet distance. She watched them kiss in the hallway, saw Steve press Tony against the door of his quarters and kiss him senseless. She even lurked outside the door, listening to Steve’s cries of pleasure as he and Tony had sex. 

She went back to watch the movie. 

The next day, she made a visit to Stark’s workshop. 

“Hi, Natasha. What can I do for you?”

She stared at him without saying anything at all for a few moments. 

“What’s wrong?” he prompted. 

“Do you love him?”

“I don’t know. I certainly _like_ him. The sex is fantastic, too.”

“He’s a good lover,” she said and watched Stark raise an eyebrow at her. 

“You sleep with him, too?”

“On occasion. He’s my friend.” 

“We’re all friends,” Stark said, rather offhandedly. 

“No, we’re not all friends. We are colleagues and acquaintances.”

“I’m hurt that you don’t think of me as your friend,” he told her. 

“No. You’re not. You might be offended that I have not succumbed to your charm, but you’re not hurt.”

She stepped closer to him. It was only then that he noticed she was in her black catsuit, that she had her Widow Bites on. She saw his eyes narrow and saw him swallow. 

“I came to tell you something. I don’t care who Steve loves and who he fucks. I do care if he’s hurt. If you hurt him, Tony Stark, there will not be a place in the vastness of the universe where you can hide from me. Is that clear?”

He nodded, eyes big and a little scared. 

Good. 

“I’m watching you. Always.”

She smiled to herself as she left. 

*

The words would haunt her when Stark was lost in space, presumed dead after the Snap. Steve was inconsolable, about Tony, about them all. 

“We’ll find him,” she assured Steve as she held him in her arms. “I promised him a long time ago that I’d search the universe for him if he left you. I never thought it to be a literal thing.”

He seemed satisfied with her statement. She was glad he didn’t press her for details. Tomorrow she’d talk to Banner about how to go about looking for Stark. She owed him.


End file.
